World

Selma, the city America left behind

SELMA, Alabama — The water towers that stand tall over Selma tell passersby that it's "a nice place to live." But looking around the city, you wonder whether that simple line is trying to compensate for a depressing truth, like a quick paint job laid over a molding wall.

Thousands traveled to Selma over the weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. But those visitors witnessed contradiction of sorts: A city where civil rights history was made is, underneath, a city scarred by racial inequality.

The modern United States has left Selma behind. Houses across the city are chipped, molding and fading back to the color palette of the earth. Signs hanging outside shops advertise Coca-Cola, anti-freeze or thermostat repair, but the windows are blown out and the signs are splotchy with red rust, almost as if they've developed a violent rash.

A house stands a few blocks from Brown Chapel in Selma, Alabama, on March 8.

Image: Mashable Bianca Consunji

"Now you have a situation where you're supposed to be equal, but you're still struggling economically," Henry Allen, a black man who marched on Bloody Sunday, told Mashable. "People are still living in sub-standard housing. They're not living the American dream."

Selma's population has declined from 28,000 to around 20,000 since 1965 as white residents have slowly left town, turning a city that was once racially balanced in terms of population into one that is 80% black.

The rate of violent crime in Selma is five times higher than the rest of Alabama. Around 40% of residents live below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate here is two times higher than the state average.

A water tower in Selma, Alabama.

Image: Mashable Bianca Consunji

Though racial tension in Selma isn't as overt as it was in 1965, it's there in some ways that are subtle and others that are less so.

Public schools are full of almost only black students who are the children of other minority residents. White parents send their kids to private schools. Country clubs are still membership-only and mostly white. To become a member, Selma residents say, you usually have to be good friends with one. Residents say buildings in the primarily black neighborhoods aren't kept up as well as the white part of town. That hasn't changed in 50 years.

"We know we still have a lot to do to work toward total humane treatment of each other," Louretta Wimberly, a black resident of Selma, told Mashable.

Homes in Selma, Alabama, a few blocks from Brown Chapel.

Image: Mashable Bianca Consunji

Nearly everyone Mashable spoke with also talked about education. They said better education from grade school through high school would lead to better better jobs, less poverty and a decrease in violent crime.

But older residents who have worked with Selma's next generation can rattle off lists of problems with the education the city's kids receive. Many high schoolers can barely read at a third-grade level. Others can't read at all or have dropped out of school entirely.

Allen said it's at about this time when these normal, nice kids become the stereotypical "problem child." Teachers have allowed many students to move from grade to grade without actually learning. Schools haven't provided many kids with a foundation on which they can grow up and get a job, and so Allen said the students often don't see a reason to pay attention.

"Really, you're just lost in society," he said. "We're facing a lot of that. We're facing too much of it."

A man walks down a street in downtown Selma, Alabama on March 7.

Image: Mashable Bianca Consunji

But it's not as if there hasn't been any progress. Black residents are no longer told where they can and cannot sit. There are no signs marked "colored." And residents say attitudes toward race have changed for the better.

"The playing field is not quite even, but it's even enough if you need it to be," Ty Amin Nasim, a Selma resident, told Mashable.

Yet as many visitors head home Monday morning, residents are left to wonder whether the national spotlight will be enough to bring about the change they believe Selma needs today.

A man sells buttons to people in Selma, Alabama before President Barack Obama spoke here on March 7.

Image: Mashable Bianca Consunji

The city is forever a part of America's story. Selma is a city loaded with history, but residents don't want it to be stuck there. Many Americans view Selma as a landmark, an event that transpired long ago, something they've always heard about.

But this city is still breathing.

Its residents wake up every day and go to school or work — or neither. They say the Civil Rights Movement is something that must remain alive and well for racial progress to continue not just in Selma, but from Virginia to California.

"We just have far to go," Joanne Bland, who marched on Bloody Sunday, told Mashable. "We're not where we're supposed to be."

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